Int J Pharm Pract 1998:6:120-6

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, England M13 9PL
Marjorie C. Weiss, DPhil, MRPharmS, lecturer
Judith A. Cantrill, MSc, MRPharmS, clinical senior lecturer
Huong Ly Nguyen, MSc student

Correspondence: Dr Weiss mweiss@fs1.pa.man.ac.uk

Original Papers

Pharmacists' and pre-registration pharmacy graduates' views of proxy consultations

MARJORIE C. WEISS, JUDITH A. CANTRILL and HUONG LY NGUYEN

Proxy consultations, when a customer seeks advice or requests a medicine on behalf of someone else, account for up to one-third of all visits to a community pharmacy. A combined qualitative and quantitative approach was taken to explore pharmacy staff perceptions, and management of, proxy consultations and the use of protocols. Based upon the results of 12 qualitative interviews, a postal questionnaire was designed and sent to 100 randomly selected community pharmacists and 100 pre-registration pharmacy graduates. Fifty-five pharmacists and 44 pre-registration pharmacy graduates (49.5 per cent overall) completed the questionnaire.
Respondents cited lack of information about the patient concerning their clinical condition, symptoms or medication as particular difficulties when managing proxy consultations. Respondents offered nine strategies for coping with proxy consultations, including checking the patient medication record, obtaining additional information from the proxy customer and ringing the patient directly. Eighty-six respondents (88 per cent) thought they were more cautious when selling medicines to proxy customers. Most respondents (N=69) felt that their protocols took account of proxy customers although the majority (N=91) also thought they had to be flexible when using protocols in proxy consultations. Proxy consultations are an area of practice which merit future pharmacy practice research.